On the sixth day of Halloween my true love gave to me… a reading of “Monster Apparent.” This poem was written in August 2019 and does not appear in my recent Altars and Oubliettes. I’ve held it back to include in the next collection I’m working on titled Post Consumer to be released April 2021.
Why did I write it? This is a very personal poem for me. Based on a real event, a woman hit a man bicycling to an Easter sunrise service. She had been partying and was intoxicated. The worst part is after she hit him she drove away. By the time he was found it was too late—he was dead. Paramedics reckon he would have probably survived if he could have gotten medical help.
This is one of those instances when I’ve used writing for therapy. I was so angry at people in general that drink and drive, oblivious to the damage they can do not only to themselves, but someone else. Ironically, years later a similar situation has returned to haunt me. My ex-son-in-law just hit and killed someone a few months ago. Again, I turn to writing to handle the anger.
This is “Monster Apparent,” written by me and performed by Ryan Aussie Smith. Published in my newly released poetry chapbook Altars and Oubliettes, available on Amazon here.
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5503-twelve-days-of-christmas
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You can find all the 13 Day recordings as they publish here.
